Under Tennessee’s system, justices and appeals court judges initially are appointed by the governor and at the end of their first terms — and any subsequent terms — must prevail in yes-or-no retention votes.

Retention votes are nonpartisan and typically uncontroversial. Only one justice has ever been kicked off the bench by voters. This year, however, an unprecedented partisan effort to oust Wade, Clark and Lee — respected judges recommended for retention by the state’s Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission — turned into a bare-knuckled brawl.

Republican Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, aided by out-of-state special interest groups, accused the justices of being too liberal because they were appointed to the High Court by former Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat. Bredesen governed as an old-school moderate Democrat, but voters relying on the justices’ opposition for their information would never know it.

Mailers and television ads depicted the justices as being soft on crime and in lockstep with President Barack Obama on health care. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has never ruled on any aspect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is a federal law outside their jurisdiction. The only connection to the Affordable Care Act is so tenuous that it barely exists.

In Tennessee, unique among the states, the state Supreme Court appoints the attorney general. Once appointed, however, the attorney general is an independent officeholder who does not report to the justices.

Attorney General Robert Cooper declined to join other states seeking to overturn the Affordable Care Act.

The opponents’ tactics outraged many in the legal community, Republicans and Democrats alike. Former Chief Justice William “Mickey” Barker, a Republican, pulled no punches in his assessment of the justices’ opposition: “I use this word very advisably: They are lies,” he told the New York Times. “And I’m sorry to say that our lieutenant governor is the main culprit. All of it goes back to him.”

In a victory for judicial independence, Tennesseans rightly rebuked Ramsey and the special interest groups at the polls. A majority of the state’s citizens value fairness, experience and legal acumen over partisan bias on the Supreme Court and sent a clear message by retaining Wade, Clark and Lee.